Back to Russia(n) - part 1: the nth article about why you *should* learn the local language before moving to a place

I had picked the wrong course at university and I couldn’t see any way out. After 2014 I posted almost nothing on my Facebook group, let alone YouTube or anything else. After all, it was “a waste of time instead of studying”, right?

So, fast forward to 2017 and...

Back to Moscow, again like in 2004.

However, let’s look a bit at the background of those years.

We were in 2016, and I was in the fourth year of university because Law is a course that lasts 5 years in Italy.

I’ve always been a commuter between Milan and my town, not by choice. And I hated it.

Over those 5 years, I wasted 3 hours a day on the means of transport, getting quite cut off from all the networking opportunities and extra-courses that would’ve meant me losing the last “safe” train of the evening. 

I was really like a pressure cooker ready to explode. I hated the feeling of being stuck, of not being able to do anything but wait. That equals torture for me because I hate wasting my time.

That year, however, I could look for an internship. Rather than what I was going to do, for me the only thing that mattered was finding a place sufficiently far not to be able to commute. 

I started applying literally anywhere I could. Getting some personal independence was all that counted, far from my town and its people especially.

I also applied for the Italian Embassy in Moscow. There were two opportunities, one for commercial affairs and one for political office.

A dream comes true

Around 4 January 2017, I received a call on my phone from a weird number starting with +7.

I answered in English. A voice with a heavy Roman accent on the other side: “Ms. Maggi, you’ve been selected for the internship at the commercial office of the Italian Embassy in Moscow”.

Oh. My. God.

My only thought was “A dream comes true”.

I left around mid-February. The sir on the phone had tried to discourage me because of the cold haha, telling me to come a bit later (I had some flexibility in the choice of the date), but I really couldn’t care less. I just wanted to leave asap.

Of course, my priority was the language: I used Pimsleur and I must say it was really good if someone has a bit of a sensible ear and is willing to work on a side, not limiting the work to the audio lessons. Obviously, it’s not enough.

However, it proved to be useful as of day 1. I mean it literally, as if I stepped out of the plane.

Listen carefully if there’s still someone who doesn’t understand the importance of proficiency, and honestly of a good pronunciation too I’d say.

Why?

Don't forget you're in Russia

You’re at Sheremetyevo airport. The flight is almost full of Russians only, so when you get to the passport control the foreigners are not many. However, there’s a little problem: you forget you’re in Russia.

It means that you don’t realize that that little sms you’re trying to send your family while queuing doesn’t work because there is a signal block.

Result? You run out of credit before it’s your turn. Cool.

The battery of course is not in a better shape, but it’s still sort of ok. In any case, you have a foreign number so you cannot be reached if you’re completely out of credit.

Finally, you get through the controls after someone who had to go or came from Stavropol’ took ages to sort out the paperwork. 

Then, you go to the baggage claim and your luggage is running alone on the belt because everybody else got through faster than you ahaha. At least it was still there.

Next step? Taxis!

The Taxi Saga

You go to the counter and tell the guys that you need a taxi to go to Smolenskaya Ploshchad’. Of course, there were only men, it was already dark and snowing, because… why not?

The price was fixed at around 3500 rubles. I agreed and went out. They told me I had to pay cash in rubles but I could withdraw the money once arrived.

I go out with someone from the staff and well… a car comes, they tell me it’s mine.

What you have to think is that I’ve never been cold-blooded, so I usually freak out in a matter of seconds, but in Moscow, I could discover another side of me.

That car had nowhere written that it was a taxi, no number on the side doors. Maybe it was an Uber or another private car… I didn’t feel like risking right away, because anyway, I went to the taxi counter, not the one of companies like YandexTaxi that puts official taxis and the other cars altogether. 

I didn’t find it wise to get on it so I complained and asked for a taxi with the word “taxi” on top. They had said that the number was inside of course ahah.

Another car comes. At that moment, call me a pain or whatever, I just thought about all the possibilities. I remember that an Iranian friend of mine had told me he was asked for 200€ for the ride.

I didn’t know yet that actually they cannot accept payments in euros. Of course, the embassy gave no instructions or advice whatsoever. 

I asked the guys of the “staff” how much it would be in euros and guess what? They said 200€! Which was definitely not the right price and I knew the exchange rate.

At that moment 1€ was 60 rubles so the price was rather 58€ or so. I switched to Russian all of a sudden and shouted “это слишком дорого!” (eto slishkom dorogo! - it’s too expensive!).

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The Power of Language

You cannot imagine the panic in the eyes of the people haha!!

I went back inside the airport because I was pissed off. I don’t know if you realize it: usually, Western Europeans don’t get that in the East the security check is also at the entrance of the airports.

Thanks to my family and their idea of me going on a polar expedition with all the equipment I had on me it took me several minutes to undress and dress up again + having checked all the luggage I had.

Remember I had no credit in my phone and it couldn’t even connect to the wifi of the airport, I don't know why. As soon as I got to my place I also ran out of battery ahah. What a day.

So I got back to the taxi counter, manifestly annoyed by the situation.

I complained loudly, something else that I had never done before, and their boss apologized saying that it was because of their English, which was not so good. And guess what again? Magic happened.

The price dropped to 1500 rubles, so from 58€ to 25€, I paid in advance by credit card and got a taxi with the official livery. 

So, this was my first day in Moscow. Again, what a day.

...and of good pronunciation especially

Moscow is where I understood the importance of language proficiency.

Of course, minimal knowledge is better than nothing, but proficiency is way better. I’m pretty sure that the taxi guys were surprised by the pronunciation. 

Since there is too much to say about this, I will go on with the rest in a further episode 🙂